It is almost as I need to make a note to myself that will say "winter"! A weather alarm maybe… something! We got lucky yesterday, in the 70’s rolling through Oklahoma, started to hear rumors about some bad weather approaching Amarillo. Enough with the day, we settle in and very quickly started rocking and rolling braving 25 to 35mph winds with gusts of 45… freezing temperatures and, why not at this point, bring it on…snow. This is how it is here I am told this morning while having coffee and a donut (yes!!!) with the old timers that crossed this frozen parking lot for their morning ritual. One day hot… one day freezing. So Lubbock will have to wait till tomorrow now and actually this is kind of nice! We have plenty of food, a good connection, Spirit will have to lounge around one more day unless it warms up quicker, we will then go play in the snow. We are not going anywhere.

So I will go through the pictures taken in Graceland a couple days ago, the home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. I hope that some of you are fans as there are quite a few pictures. The thought actually is that even if one is not a fan, well, the man was famous enough to awaken some curiosity about where he lived and his Life. Am I glad I went? Yes… would I have taken a detour to see it? Honestly I don’t know, as there were pros and cons about the whole experience mixed in with some sadness about the fact that "how can someone with so much fame and talent pass away as such early age?"

I found the whole operation highly commercialized. Is it right? is it wrong? I wish it was not, but, with so many visitors and probably the upkeep costs, is it a must? There was definitely some order through the visit. Little buses depart from across the street every so often and drop about 25 visitors at the time in front of the main entrance of the house. Everyone has a recorder with earphones that narrates the tour, but the house is very small, narrow hallways and trying to take pictures while no one is around was a true challenge… I end up staying behind and squeeze in some shots in between groups as actually one could stay all day if they wanted to.

The tour started with the living room, remember… 60’s and 70’s here… on to the kitchen with the stairs going up to the bedrooms which were off limits to visitors. A small dining room and we kept being told that this house was alive 24/7 with many friends in and out non stop. The rooms are small I was thinking, but actually many of them, I don’t think there must have been always a big crowd, maybe more scattered than anything else.

Of course in today’s standards the taste of it all seems odd… but that was then and it was interesting to see how much the furniture and specially colors and fabrics have changed. Including the "Jungle room", all the colors where very much darker, muted with not much life in them. Love the avocado color rug, it sure brings back some memories of my own.

The idea was that he bought this house for his mother, large enough to live in without much maintenance.

On the other hand, now that I am counting them, there were quite a few rooms! Smaller rooms with today’s standard Mansions which one can associate Elvis with, but still, living room, dining room, kitchen where we were also told most everyone gathered, Jungle room, pool table room, entertainment room, media room, another casual living room, he also had his offices in a separate building… and that is not counting the closed for now upstairs. Those were his private quarters by the way as no one ever came up while visiting.

What was amazing was beyond the house, in the hallways and also the racquet ball court hosting his many gold records, awards and costumes. What an incredible display it was.

I have some more interesting pictures, his cars, motorcycles, many more costumes and awards, his resting place. I will post those next time. As I write this we are in Slaton now, a cool little town south of Lubbock in the City Park which has free camping! So we will stay here a couple nights, hopefully go and see the Buddy Holly Museum tomorrow and also the wind mill museum. I just realized… lots of Museums lately!!! Maybe it is a good winter hobby. The bad and cold front by the way is gone, still very windy but the sunshine feels great!

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